


As Luck Would Have It

by theangrywarlock



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Cosette knows Marius too well, F/M, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-09
Updated: 2013-02-09
Packaged: 2017-11-28 18:51:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/677712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theangrywarlock/pseuds/theangrywarlock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a prompt. For a day, Marius comes down with Bossuet's luck and the Amis (and Eponine and Cosette) try to help. Try. AU in which everyone lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As Luck Would Have It

**Author's Note:**

> A note on Pierre - My friends and I were chatting to JoeSpiel, and he brought up the casting of Les Amis within the US tour. There is always an unnamed student, and since Bahorel isn't on the list, the cast tends to assign the person who plays the unnamed student as Bahorel. Until recently, that is, when the person who normally plays the unnamed student stated that he wasn't Bahorel. JoeSpiel said that he made up a new student called Pierre. "You can't be Pierre," said JoeSpiel, who's more for canon than you, "You can't make up a student, and Pierre's a stupid name!" And this is why JoeSpiel is made of awesome.
> 
> Since that conversation, Pierre has been something of an inside joke between us. This prompt gave bonus points for Pierre, thus why he's in here.

"Is there anything we can use in place of bullets?"

A strange question to Pierre, who had been pacing a little, eager for the next attack of sappers. He had managed to hold off the first wave of them, but he was only one man. He couldn't fight this battle alone. "No need for substitutions," he proclaimed. His dark hair flew behind like the mane of shaggy black dog. A majestic shaggy black dog. "I'll collect them from the bodies!"

Enjolras turned concerned eyes toward him. "That's a dangerous risk, Pierre." But even Enjolras' beauty couldn't compare to Pierre's determination.

"Save me a spot on the barricade, boys!" He said as he skillfully made his way over the barricade. The National Guard caught sight of him even though the gunsmoke, for Pierre seemed to shine with a radiance that lent to his shining personality and bravery. The bullets came at him, but he was too fast. He cartwheeled, zig-zagged, and somersaulted around the field, collecting bullets from the dead, and making sure he made it back to the barricade in the nick of time. His moves were unlike any the rebels had seen, and he was greeted with wild applause from the others.

"Thank you, Pierre. You've saved this barricade." Enjolras touched his shoulder in a moment of affection. Pierre humbly nodded.

"We needed something. It was my honor to get it."

"All the same, you are now this barricade's chief." Enjolras turned to the others. "Here is Pierre, the savior of the barricade!"

The cheers were-

Were? Outstanding? Phenomenal?

Pierre's quill tickled the end of his nose as he held it above the paper. A bit of ink slid from it, landing upon the parchment and blotting a word. Nevermind that. He'd edit it all later.

He wondered how long it would take the public to start assigning him names after reading his memoirs. He hadn't been in the earlier articles of the press, nor did he have his portrait drawn, though a good many of his friends received that honor and didn't care for it. Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac couldn't escape untouched and each of them had their fair share of names created by the press and the public, heralding them as part of the survivors of that terrible night. Terrible and glorious night.

Ah! That was it!

_The cheers were glorious._

The door to the Musain burst open and Pierre turned, hoping to see one of his fellow Amis but was greeted only by Marius.

He didn't mind Marius too much. Granted, he had gotten out of hand during one of the meetings and had gone off all about Napoleon. Pierre had to quiet him with a quick comeback. Afterwards, he felt he had been too cruel about it, so he had tried to calm Marius down a little. It was all in vain as Marius didn't return to the Musain after. He had joined them at the barricade, which wasn't too bad, except the boy wasn't all that certain of what he was doing.

Marius looked around the Musain, and spotting only Pierre, gave off such a disappointed look that Pierre was tempted to return to his writing and disregard Marius entirely. This wasn't an easy thing to do as Marius looked positively bedraggled.

"Help me," he said before he collapsed to the floor.

Perhaps he should help the man? But what good would that get him? Was Marius still a Republican? Had it been an act at the barricade?

Before he could get over to Marius, a girl appeared beside him dressed in what Pierre could only describe as 'rags'.

"Honestly, Monsieur Marius, there's no need for you to be so dramatic." The girl looked up at Pierre. "What are you sitting there for? Get over here and help him into a chair!"

Once Marius was properly seated, he was able to give Pierre more of a recount of the day.

"I burned down my law firm!" He moaned as he folded his arms on the table and sunk his head down upon them. Eponine patted his back.

"There, there. It's not as big a loss as you may think. You didn't have that many clients and the clients you did have were guilty as sin. It's a good thing that their papers all went up in flame!"

Marius wailed.

Pierre's eyes widened. "Is he serious? Did he really burn it down?"

"Not on purpose," Eponine clarified. "He woke up at his desk and realized that while he slept, he had spilled his ink. Ink is pretty hard to clean up, especially in the dark. So he lit a candle and tried wiping up the ink. While he was stumbling about, the ink spread and he knocked over the candle. Who knew that ink could be so flamey?"

"Flamable," Marius corrected, his voice muffled from his arms.

"Sure. That. So there went his law firm."

"How am I supposed to tell Cosette? She won't believe me!"

"I rather think she will, Monsieur Marius."

If Pierre was a bit more observant, perhaps he would have caught the undercurrent of amusement in Eponine's voice. As it were, he was more intent on gathering his manuscripts. "I wish I could help, but there's not much I can do about it. Sounds like your firm is a pile of tinder, so unless you wanted to hire builders-"

"I don't need builders! I need a good luck charm!" Marius sprang upwards, upsetting his chair. "Don't you see? This entire morning has been nothing but horrendous luck. I destroyed my firm, I've ink all over me, a carriage splashed mud all over me when I was trying to get here, and I ended up destroying Eponine's breakfast."

"It was just some bread," Eponine said as she tried to reassuredly pat him again before looking at Pierre. "However, if you've got anything..."

"I don't have any food here."

Marius gestured dramatically at Pierre. "See? More bad luck! I came here to see if there was anything anyone can do, but we've only encountered you."

Pierre saw that as the only good thing that happened to Marius today. "Why not bring it up to Joly and Bossuet? Surely they're used to dealing with such unpleasantries?"

Marius shifted from foot to foot. "Think so? Think that would help? Or maybe by putting Lesgles and myself in the same vicinity, we would cause a collapse of the world."

More used to such melodrama by Courfeyrac, Pierre wasn't sure how to respond to it as coming from Marius. "I think it could help." Anything to keep the accident prone man away from his memoirs.

"So where are they?" Eponine asked.

Pierre gave them directions to the new hospital being built. He figured that if Joly could be found, Bossuet couldn't be far behind. He also figured that the sooner Marius left him be, the better. Never had he felt so good as when Eponine opened up the door to help Marius out.

Never had he felt so terrified as a wind came through the door and neatly shuffled Pierre's manuscript out the window.

The pages flew about Paris, some ending up in the sewer, some in the gutter, and one or two in the hands of a stately gentleman who read them over. His only few observations was that this Pierre fellow seemed a bit full of himself and that the blond was hot.

Mr. Hugo felt that he could work with this.

\--

"And so it is my honor," Joly said as he stepped down onto the shovel to bring up some dirt from the ground. "To be the one to dedicate this new hospital, this beacon of light and hope, to the new Republic. May it stand the test of time and be able to help the people of France." He tossed aside the dirt, which ended up falling into the face of one of the men standing beside him. Nonplussed, Joly drew the shovel back over his shoulder, accidentally smacking the man standing next to him in the face with it. "We thank everyone for their generous donations, the committee for making this possible, and of course, the people." He moved the shovel down onto his other side, intending to implant it in the ground so another could continue the dedication. The tip of the shovel careened with the shoe of the man who was standing on his other side. "Thank you."

It wasn't the best dedication speech ever and he knew it. He wasn't a talker. He was a doctor, professional now that he had his schooling, and he felt far safer behind an apron than behind a shovel.

Especially when he saw what damage could be done with a shovel.

Bossuet was also tugging at his sleeve, quietly trying to get his attention away from the crowd. Moving through the pack, guided by Bossuet, he soon came face to face with the saddest looking Marius he'd ever seen in his life.

"Measles?" Joly guessed.

"A round of bad luck," Eponine said. "Started this morning and it hasn't ended."

For this his dedication had to be interrupted? Bossuet, seeing Joly's gradual annoyance, spoke up first. "Funny thing is that my luck has been pretty good throughout the day."

"It transferred to me! You have my luck!"

Just as Marius was about to grab at Bossuet, Joly moved between them. "Stop this. Do you know how silly this is? There's no such thing as a transfer of bad luck, or good luck for that matter. Marius, you're just having a bad day. Bossuet, you're just having a decent day. I'm sure tomorrow will see it all straightened out. Or perhaps it's just in your head, Marius."

"I can't go home like this," Marius cried. "I can't risk harming Cosette! What if I burn down the house? What if I hurt our child? She's pregnant, Joly!"

"Oh? What's her status?"

Eponine cut in quickly. "If it's all in their head, perhaps a transfer might work."

"And how do you propose we do a transfer?" Joly asked, letting a bit of Bossuet's sarcasm drip into his voice. "Through lightning?"

As though God heard him, the skies abruptly darkened and a crack of thunder was heard in the distance.

\--

"This is really, really unsanitary!" Joly could come up with a few more adjectives to describe what they were doing, but unsanitary sounded the most dangerous to him. He had already stated that this was very unsafe, which meant little to men who had been on the barricade and even more little to a woman who lived on the streets. Extremely dangerous also sounded like a throwaway idea. Incredibly foolish and stupid was another idea that sprang to Joly's head, but he decided against it.

Heaven forbid he offend one of them.

Finding the long metal rod had taken them a good half an hour. Fortunately, Parisian junk yards hosted a plethora of items. Joly's talks with Combeferre had been put to ill use when he described the basics of lightning, electricity, and how it really shouldn't be used in such cases.

"What we need is a jolt of that electricity!" Bossuet said, feeling far too happy about this idea. His day was going well, and he felt certain that should lightning even hit them, he would be the one spared from any ill effects.

Marius agreed solely because he would do anything to cure himself.

Eponine went along with it because she had nothing better to do and seeing two grown men struck by lightning was likely to be the highlight of her day. No pun intended.

Unfortunately, one of the highest rooftops in Paris happened to be Marius' house, so there all four of them stood. Joly kept his eyes shut as he huddled in the corner, hoping that Bossuet wasn't going to burn himself up but anticipating the stench of charred flesh all the same. Marius and Bossuet held up the metal rod together. Eponine watched the skies, squinting in the rain.

The entire event probably would have gone about as disastrous as Joly was figuring it would had it not been for Cosette. Hearing her husband come in and rush up the stairs followed by a few all too familiar voices, she had gotten curious and made her way up.

Now she stood in the doorway of the only entrance that led to the roof. Her arms were crossed to protect herself from the wind.

"Marius?"

At the sound of her voice, Marius immediately felt guilty. "Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to," he shut his eyes, for some reason feeling more stupid than he ever had in his life, "cure my bad luck."

"Oh. Because it looks to me that you're holding aloft something metal in the middle of a rainstorm."

"Yes, that's what I'm doing."

"Marius?"

"...Yes?"

"Come inside. Bring your friends with. Eponine, dear, I trust you're not trying to kill my husband again."

"...Not this time, no."

Joly had never felt so grateful for Marius' wife before. He happily led the procession down off the roof. Cosette fixed the three water-logged guests and an errant husband up with tea and some bread and cheese as Marius explained just what they had been doing. Cosette listened quietly.

"I'm sorry about your law firm, but didn't you tell me that the place had been practically abandoned when you purchased the building? That's why it came so cheap as it was close to being condemned." She had read the papers for the building herself since it had been her money that went into its purchase. "Maybe you could use this as a blessing in disguise and set up an office either at the house or somewhere fancier." She had wanted him to find somewhere better in the first place, but Marius' pride wouldn't allow her to spend that much on his burgeoning business.

Marius shuffled his feet a little. "I guess it would be a welcome change to set something up here. I could be closer to you and to the child."

"Good. Now invite Eponine to stay the night like a good host."

"Eponine, would you like to-"

"Sure. Pass the cheese." Eponine may have missed breakfast, but with the treat she was being given here, she had to admit that it was worth the day's aggravation.

"Fantastic." Cosette stood up. "Eponine, if you wouldn't mind coming with me? I'm sure we've a good deal to talk about. And Marius, please apologize to your friends for risking their lives in such an incredibly foolish stunt."

"Thank you!" That was from Joly.

Cosette and Eponine left the room, chattering about girl stuff as Marius could only imagine. Though more than likely they were talking about him and not in a pleasant 'oh, his muscles have grown' sort of manner. He looked sheepishly at Bossuet and Joly. "I guess I over-exaggerated the situation."

Bossuet scoffed. "This was the first time you've ever had to deal with such luck. I can't blame you for panicking. I've had my entire life to get used to it."

"So how do you get used to it? My streak of ill luck may not end tomorrow."

Bossuet nodded at Joly. "I have him. I have my friends. Funny how my luck never seems to affect them."

Marius could understand that. He had Eponine. He had Cosette. He had the others as well, and they really ought to talk a bit more. Besides, didn't Courfeyrac have a law firm? Maybe he should pay his old friend a visit. "Thank you," he said. It was only two words but they were meant genuinely and with such heartfelt devotion. "Would you two stay the night?"

"We'd like to, but we've got an early morning tomorrow. You're always welcome to come over and see us," Joly conceded as he stood. "Please give your beloved our thanks."

Marius showed them out, feeling much lighter than he had all day.

During the walk home, another crack of thunder sounded through the sky and a streak of lightning crashed against the ground right behind Bossuet, causing him to jump and run straight into Joly. The two tumbled to the ground, muddying them both.

"I suppose your bad luck has returned?" Joly muttered as his hat rolled down the street.

"Not at all! That could have hit me! How lucky I am!"


End file.
